More Moms Are Announcing Their Pregnancies Before the 12-Week Mark Now

Lately, more and more women are breaking the 12-week mark rule, and sharing their baby news whenever they want. One of those women is Sophie Cachia, an Australian blogger known as The Young Mummy. In a guest post on Mamamia, Sophie shared her pregnancy news at nine weeks. Her readers, of course, had strong responses, but the blogger stands by her decision.

Expectant women are typically encouraged to wait to reveal their baby news until after the first trimester, when the risk of miscarriage significantly drops. Waiting 12 weeks has become such a social norm, in fact, that women often go to great lengths to hide their happy news until telling time arrives.

I feel like it would be a serious contradiction to everything I’ve ever written about if I spent the next month continuing to lie. I didn’t want to keep lying and continue to hide my pregnancy, but yet we are made to feel like we should. Can’t we as women have control over our bodies and thus make our own decisions?

She also told Today that hiding her pregnancy wasn’t really an option: “With my son, I didn’t officially announce it until the 12 weeks, but the majority of people around us — friends and family — knew at about eight weeks because I just show so early so it was impossible to hide.”

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Many women are sharing the happy news simply because they’re too excited to keep a secret for three months, but previously difficult pregnancies are also inspiring the break in tradition. “I got to the point where I needed the support, not to mention the childcare, for my daughter while I went in for a zillion ultrasounds,” Susanne Kerns, of Texas, told Today.

Does this mean the 12-week mark will eventually become a thing of past? Obviously telling the world you’re expecting at six weeks vs. 13 weeks has no effect on the health of the baby, so ultimately the question is whether or not the mom-to-be is just as comfortable posting a miscarriage announcement on Facebook as she is a pregnancy announcement.